章節 7: The News
News of the opening of the academy travelled across the immortal world faster than lighting and people from all over, young and old, all flocked to the capital to sign up and take the test in hopes they'd be chosen and get in.
The capital was overfilled with people and the lines even extended outside the capital to the next cities.
A month after the Ghost King made the announcement, the academy was finally finished and welcomed people to apply and take the test to determine if they would become the new hope for everyone.
The public praised the Ghost King for this decision as in the past the Ghost King's power was only exclusive to the families. Everyone aspired to be exorcists and help the Ghost King. Everyone wanted to purge the vengeful ghosts that have assaulted and killed many immortals.
In front of the academy, in the large place, the attendants had a hard time controlling the crowds who all wanted to be the first to sign up.
The enrollment of the academy was open for a month before it closed and would reopen the next year. The Ghost King had the thought that the students should train and study for a year, both physically and mentally, to rule out those who could not withstand the pressure.
Then when only the top students have remained, they would be given the power by the Ghost King and train for two years where they'd be sent to various missions, including the mortal world.
This kind of academy was the first of its kind and attracted much attention and favour. It was a new sensation and was already loved.
In this month, the anticipation rose and everyone forgot about the K family. It was unspokenly decided that the K family became a taboo to talk about.
In a city, far away from the capital, three particular eye-catching immortals have made their way to the capital. One of them was tall and his calm eyes shone like stars, his high nose made his handsome face even more outstanding and his thin lips hooked up into an attractive smile.
Just one look and he captured the hearts of females and males equally. He was like a gentle wave crashing onshore taking everything with him. His temper was good as he waited and looked back at his two bickering friends.
"Yano! Have you found the path yet?" a bright individual caught up to Yano. If Yano was like deep and calm water, Mil was like the bright sun illuminating everyone.
"Hey, don't ignore me!" a beautiful female lightly hit Mil in the sides. Her eyes exuded fierceness but her smile was gentle.
"It's a bit hard," Yano admitted.
Those three have never been to the capital or set a foot outside their home and now they were on their way to sign up for the academy.
Yet, the first hurdle already appeared, on their way not far from home, they were already lost.
"Just ask someone," Skyla rolled her eyes and Yano teased her,
"Why don't you and Mil go alone to ask and I wait here?"
"A-Alone?" Skyla was visibly shy but shook her head and her long hair whipped around.
"What? It's not like the first time. We grew up together, what are you being shy for?" Yano's eyes narrowed in amusement as he saw Skyla's proud demeanour change into that of a nervous maiden.
"I'll ask!" Mil freed Skyla from Yano's torture and he was as bubbly as always as he asked some passerby for direction.
"Don't always do that!" Skyla hissed and pinched Yano in the arm.
"Haha," Yano just laughed and rubbed the sore spot. If Skyla wanted, she could really exert a lot of strength. It hurt a bit.
"Guys!" Mil came back deflated, "we totally went the wrong way!"
"That means?" Yano looked bored after he couldn't tease Skyla anymore.
"That means, we went the wrong direction and have to walk all the way back," Mil exasperated at the thought.
"Great, we should never listen to you ever again. Your sense of direction is horrible! We should've just gone with Maria!" Skyla huffed out and strode the way back.
Mil walked next to her and stroked her hair, "Don't be mad!"
His bubbly smile melted her heart and her anger disappeared. She obediently nodded her head.
Yano just sighed. They would take ages to get to the capital. Hopefully, by then, the academy would still take people. Yano has never wished more than now to have magic or any form of transportation. Why was the immortal world so inconvenient?
The mortal world had all sorts of fancy stuff yet the immortals had to walk for days, months and years just because they had time. Even if their perception of time was different and years went by faster for them than for mortals, it still didn't mean that no immortal shouldn't just steal a few of the mortal world's transportation to bring it back here!
Although all these thoughts circled his brain, Yano was calm and he bore his dignified and handsome demeanour that sent everyone into a daze when he walked past them.
***
In the rocky land, surrounded by green light, there was an abyss caught between two mountains that led hundred of kilometres down, and the bottom of this abyss was covered and filled with millions of corpses.
Only in the middle was a large statue emitting the same green light as above. The abyss was endlessly long, yet the only human being could not leave the spot next to the statue.
Her flesh and bones corroded every minute as the green light ate away on her and then after almost nothing was left, the light mercilessly regenerated her to start the process again.
And so, Lia had to die over and over again, each time more painful than the previous one. She died and was reborn.
Died and reborn, every single minute for the past 83 years.
83 years only amounted to a month in the immortal world. She had to suffer countless times, bear the pain as she sought to find a way to kill herself yet the thought of letting her abusers run free gave her more pain, tortured her even more than being reduced to a lump of flesh.
Each time she was reborn, there was a split second of relief. But it was exactly this tiny second of peace that made the next round of pain even worse and fatal.
Every time this second came, Lia told herself that she would remain clear-headed and find a way to escape but it was impossible. She bathed in the bliss of feeling sane and then the second was already gone. It was a cursed cycle, endlessly tormenting and endlessly terrifying.
Despite this, she tried to gather as much information as she could. She knew this damned statue was killing and then reviving her. There must be some way to stop it. She was sure the statue itself was harmless, the problem was the green light that emitted from it.
If she could block it temporarily, would she be able to run away from it so the light couldn't reach her?
Right now, she leaned against the wall and between her and the statue was a three-metre distance littered with corpses. Now that she lost her powers, there was no way she was able to cover this large distance in a second and even if, how was she going to block it?
The statue was completely made out of stone and seemed rooted to the ground. She was sure that the light came from the inside, which meant that somewhere along the stony surface was a crack where the light slipped through and targeted her.
She was just exposed to the light yet it sank into her skin, flowed along her bloodstream and dissolved into her bones to constantly rip and melt her apart only to reconstruct her again.
As she bore the pain, just before she was about to die, she intensively stared the statue to find the crack but she was too far away.
Then she was reborn again and in that split second, she tried to move forward. From now on she had a goal to cling onto. Every time she came back to life, she would use her rotten body to get closer to that damned stone statue until her naked eye could touch it.
No matter how many years it would take her.
However, she realised the closer she got to the statue the stronger the light was and the more intense the pain got. Forget using the second to move forward it was instead used to adjust to the new pace and intensity before she could even think about escaping the statue.
Her mind mingled with the thoughts of pain and freedom, the desire to live and die, the rage and wrath inside of her.
All of it spurred her on even more.
Soon, soon, just a little more patience.
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